Disney has deep pockets and nothing says that like having just paid top-dollar for a Super Bowl spot for your upcoming blockbuster.
Check out the Super Bowl spot for Marvel Studios’ Black Widow.
“You don’t know everything about me.” Watch the Big Game spot for Marvel Studios’ #BlackWidow, in theaters May 1. pic.twitter.com/anK7EOtSlp
— Black Widow (@theblackwidow) February 3, 2020
We know so far is the film takes place shortly after the events of Captain America: Civil War, where Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow is now going on the run after helping Team Cap escape the Berlin airport and seeks help from her makeshift family back home.
Natasha’s fate has been sealed in Avengers: Endgame but there is a chance that we’ll see her “sister” Yelena Belova carry the Black Widow mantle moving forward in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit) leads a cast that consists of Florence Pugh (Little Women, Midsommor, The Little Drummer Girl) as Yelena Belova, David Harbour (Stranger Things, Quantum of Solace, The Equalizer) as Alexei Shostakov aka Red Guardian, Rachel Weisz (The Favourite, Enemy At The Gates, Constantine) as Melina Vostokoff aka Iron Maiden, William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross, O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Agent Rick Mason (will likely turn out to be Anthony Masters aka Taskmaster), and the recently confirmed character actor Ray Winstone (The Departed, Sexy Beast) in a mystery role.
Black Widow is directed by Australian director Cate Shortland from a screenplay penned by Eric Pearson (Godzilla vs Kong, Thor: Ragnarok, Agent Carter) with a story written by Jac Schaeffer and Ned Benson.
The first version of the Black Widow movie goes back to 2004 when Lionsgate secured the film rights from Marvel and writer/director David Hayter (Watchmen, X-Men, X2: X-Men United) had been attached to develop the project which sadly dissolved when other female-led superhero films failed to make money at the box office gave Lionsgate cold-feet and it was ultimately killed.
Here is what David Hayter said about the project back in 2011 when speaking to ComicBookResources.
HAYTER: “What I tried to do was use the backdrop of the splintered Soviet Empire—a lawless insane asylum with 400-some odd nuclear missile silos. It was all about loose nukes, and I felt it was very timely and very cool. Unfortunately, as I was coming up on the final draft, a number of female vigilante movies came out. We had Tomb Raider and Kill Bill, which were the ones that worked, but then we had BloodRayne and Ultraviolet and Æon Flux. Æon Flux didn’t open well, and three days after it opened, the studio said, ‘We don’t think it’s time to do this movie’.”
David Hayter would later confirm the synopsis from his old Lionsgate incarnation was being falsely circulated online as the new version from Marvel Studios.
HAYTER: “And somebody just put out a synopsis of the upcoming film based on my script because it was essentially an origin story but they basically described what my logline was.”
Talk of the possibility of the MCU version of Nathasha getting her own solo Black Widow movie goes back to 2009-2010, where Scarlett Johansson voiced her desire to get a spinoff film and there seemed to be some interest from Kevin Feige at the time. However, top-brass at Marvel like Ike Perlmutter had been holding back projects like Black Widow, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel until Disney ultimately had him removed from the film division.
It’s kind of crazy to think we’ve had to wait 16 years to finally get a Black Widow movie.
Disney has set Black Widow’s release date for May 1st.
Marvel/Disney has also dropped online four brand new character posters for the film.
SOURCE: DISNEY